Assembly machines for various devices are well known. Perhaps the most famous and first mass assemblor was Henry Ford, who created an assembly line to assemble his Ford automobile. Since that time, the automated assembly line has been refined for use in many industries.
The introduction of assembly lines has greatly reduced the cost of merchandise by eliminating manual labor. Today, such cost has been reduced to a point where many items may be assembled with the intent of disposing of them after they have been used. Such items include the ballpoint pen and the disposable razor.
The assembly machine of the present invention was created to assemble an automatic pencil which may be utilized until its lead is exhausted and then disposed of. This pencil is shown in a co-pending patent application Ser. No. 578,734, filed on Feb. 9, 1984, entitled Mechanical Pencil, now abandoned and replaced by a continuation application filed June 24, 1985, Ser. No. 747,587, which is assigned to the same assignee as the present invention.
Accordingly, a principal object of this invention provides a fast and efficient assembly machine for assembling an automatic and disposable pencil.